jueves, mayo 24, 2012

Seeds of empire

Seeds of empire

It can be difficult to believe, but the
only crops of economic importance that are native to North America are
sunflower, blueberry, cranberry and the Jerusalem artichoke (It is true
that the native peoples of the continent also planted potatoes, beans
and corn since before the whites came from Europe, but these were
brought in from Central and South America). All other crops were
imported from elsewhere, even the ones that the US currently produces in
astonishing quantities, such as wheat, corn, rice and soy. “This simple
fact of natural history has had important ramifications for the
economic, political and social development of the United States”,
according to University of Wisconsin professor Jack R. Kloppenburg's
book First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology (2004 edition), the source of much of the information in this article.

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The
planting of rice in South Carolina was owed in great part to the
introduction of a variety from Madagascar in the late XVIII century.
Sorghum cultivation in Kansas and Texas became a viable proposition
thanks to seed samples from China and Africa. The much celebrated
California citrus industry owes much to Brazilian seeds brought in by a
consul in 1871. And American cattle ranching, legendary among beef
producers all over the world, owes its success partly to the
introduction of lespedeza grass from Japan, Russian alfalfa, and African
Johnson grass.

It
is not only the introduction of species, but also of numerous varieties
of the same species, which enhance biodiversity and bring in favorable
traits to crops. A Turkish wheat variety provided the US crop with
resistance to yellow rust (Puccinia striiformis), which has
resulted in an estimated $50 million a year in savings in pest control.
An aphid-resistant sorghum variety was brought in from India, which
brings benefits estimated at $12 million a year. New Scientist magazine
reported in 1983 that American barley farmers save $150 million a year
thanks to a single gene from an Ethopian variety. According to the
distinguished plant collector Hugh Iltis, the US tomato industry
benefits from the introduction of Peruvian varieties with a high solid
content to the tune of $5 million a year. It was reported in 1986 that
the University of Illinois developed soy varieties that could be saving
farmers and the food industry between $100 and $500 million annually in
processing costs, using Korean varieties as genetic raw material. The US
wheat harvest, the world's third largest, has benefited from the
introduction of varieties from Japan, China, Russia, Palestine,
Australia, Kenya, Egypt, Bulgaria, Greece, Brazil and Uruguay. Iran,
that much maligned country, has provided the United States with valuable
varieties of cauliflower, onion, pea and spinach.

The
United States helped itself to all this exuberant and bewildering
variety of agricultural plants at practically no cost at all, with no
compensation or even acknowledgement to the peoples who spent centuries,
even millenia developing and nurturing these crops. This appropriation
was legitimized with the argument that seeds are the common heritage of
humanity. But when that nation is asked to share its treasure, it
changes its tune. In a 1977 letter to the International Board for Plant
Genetic Resources, the administrator of the US Agricultural Research
Service (ARS) said that the collected seeds “would become the property
of the US government”. Put in different words: what's yours is mine, and
what's mine is mine. In the letter, the ARS administrator openly admits
that his country does not always share freely its collected seeds:
“Political considerations have at times dictated exclusion of a few
countries.” In 1983 Canadian researcher Pat Mooney, founder of the ETC
Group, reported that the US government had denied access to its seed
collections to researchers from Albania, Cuba, Iran, Libya, the Soviet
Union, Afghanistan and Nicaragua.